MLP FIM: Death Waking
by Arguyus
Summary: After one thousand years, Death and his brother, Destruction, have returned to Equestria. With his heart broken, he is intent on dethroning Celestia and starting a new world order as a form of revenge against her. Destruction is against this plan, and his point is soon proven as an unfortunate pony gains access to a part of Death's power and is intent on using it against him.
1. Broken Heart and Good Intention

(Disclaimer: I do not own any copyrighted material you will encounter in this or any other story.)

(AN: Just so you know, the comedy in MLP FIM is a lot better than the out-of-the-gutter comedy most other shows have nowadays, and Discord for the win. If you don't like, don't read. For all announcements on this story and my others, please refer to my profile, thank you.)

Chapter 1: Broken Heart and Good Intention

The day dawned bright and clear and Luna's night came to an end, but this day was not what it seemed to be. It has only been a small number of days since princess Luna has returned, and all think that their troubles have ended, how wrong they are. Dead wrong.

In a small town a few miles southwest of Ponyville called Hoofberg, things were about to get much worse. As the day started bright and beautiful, one family would wake to find their young foal missing. They would believe the young one just snuck out to play with her friends, but the truth was much darker.

)-8-(

As the young foal struggled against the ropes that kept her on the cold stone, her eyes darted around the room. There were strange ponies in pitch black cloaks that covered their entire bodies, even the wings of those who had them were completely covered. There were two groups assembled, one with masks that had white marks on them that made it look like a skull, and others with masks that looked as if they were made of fire.

One of the ponies with a horn and flowing diaphanous necrotic purple tatters of cloth on his mask came forward, he brought something out of the folds of his cloak with his yellow magic, it was a wickedly sharp knife. While chanting from the strange ponies begin to echo around the room, the filly's eyes widened as her pupils became as small as pinholes. The knife moved to hover over her chest, right over her heart. As she started to struggle again, the blade was levitated to a foot and a half above the filly and the chanting began building to a grand crescendo.

Just before he brought the knife down, he whispered, "I'm sorry, there is no other way."

with that, the razor sharp blade fell as if it had a large weight on top of it. The filly screamed in agony as she felt the knife cut though her skin, flesh, and bone. She then felt the sharp point of the knife enter her heart, busting it. She didn't even feel the metal go straight though her spine. She could see red liquid spatter on the black and white mask of the pony standing over her as her vision began to blur. The innocent young filly soon went limp, dead.

As the chanting died down, nothing happened. '_If the master does not return, this will not be worth it._' the knife welding stallion thought to himself as he remembered the fear in the filly's eyes. As this thought finished, the room began to shake. What appeared to be two large rib bones burst out of the floor with more soon following suit, until a deep tunnel was created. Deep maniacal laughter started flowing out of the tunnel and began bouncing off the walls as an echo. As the echo began to fade, a pale white alicorn stallion emerged from the bone arch. He was very thin, looking more like a skeleton with skin stretched taut over it than a living being. His short writhing mane and long flowing tail were a necrotic purple with images of black skulls occasionally floating though it. The image on his flank was a dragon skull leaning on a strange looking rock.

The alicorn's deep green eyes scanned the room before resting on the body of the now dead filly. The stallion walked ghostlike up to the stone that the body lay on, all of the assembled ponies remained in reverent silence. The sadness in this beings eyes was easy for all to see as he spoke, "I truly regret that your newly budding life was cut so short, innocent of any major wrong, but know that you have brought a new and better world order to life this day. Even these condolences can't help me from wishing it didn't have to be this way."

It was then that he looked at the foal's killer, specifically at the blood on his mask. "Let me cleanse your attire of the blood of the innocent, it does not sit well on any conscience." The skeletal alicorn said as his purple magic covered the mask of the pony in front of him, whipping mentioned liquid off of it.

The unicorn bowed before the white alicorn that was standing before him, "Thank you, master Death."

The now identified Death waved his fore-hoof at the pony, "Please don't call me master, I don't quite like the other idea that term also carries."

Death now turned his attention to the assembled ponies, there were hundreds of them. He knew that these were just a fraction of his and his brother's followers, he knew there were in-fact hundreds of thousands of them. His gaze looked over the crowd as he spoke, "My followers, followers of my brother, this day is the day of a new beginning. We have suffered, we have been oppressed, and we have been ignored. Well, I say, no more!"

As he flared his large wings to emphasis his last statement, everypony began to cheer. Death waited for the cheering to die down before he continued his speech, "Soon, we will force Celestia from her throne. We will soon make our first move to start our would order, but first, we will celibate this momentous occasion. Call all of our brethren from allover Equestria, we shall hold a grand feast that will only be surpassed by our victory feast!"

As the crowd began to cheer once more, Death thought to himself about his first move against Celestia. There was more than one reason why he had declared this feast, the truly most pressing reason was that he was still weak. Not only was he weak from being banished for over one thousand years, but also he could not use his full power without his brother being in this world. surely his brother could sense his prescience in Equestria.

)-8-(

It has been exactly two weeks since his release, all of this time has been spent preparing for the grand feast. All of the ponies that followed both him and his brother have come, from Canterlot to Fillydelphia, even as far away as Saddle Arabia. Only one pony had yet to arrive, and that pony was Death's brother.

The imposing alicorn stood at the head of the banquet hall, even after thousands of years this was an aw inspiring sight. It was just as tall as Celestia and Luna's throne room but twice as big in every other way, with over a dozen huge brazers that could hold two full grown manticores lighting the room. Hundreds of wood tables arranged in rows stretched from the front of the room to the back, food of all sorts covered them. It was perfect, except for the fact his brother wasn't here.

As Death was thinking about this, the floor began to shake. A blazing red stone archway exploded from the floor in the middle of the room, followed by rock spikes of many different sizes. The figure that emerged from the archway was even more imposing than Death. The blood red alicorn was just as muscular as Death was thin. This being's mane and tail looked and moved like they were made of fire. His mark was an image of a desolate landscape.

For the first time in over a thousand years, a true smile came over Death's face. As the archway descended back into the floor as if it had never been there, the red alicorn's deep blue eyes looked toward the the head of the hall. Death walked over to the new arrival and put his forehoof on the the other's shoulder as he spoke, "It is good to see you after all these years, brother."

The red alicorn gave his brother a hearty hug, "I could say the same to you as well brother."

Death now turned his attention to the assembled on-lookers, almost every member of their group, "Let all know that this day my brother, Destruction, has returned to us! Now our feast will be even more joy filled than before!"

Great cheers filled the once still air, this was good news to all. The two brothers stayed in the room for a short while before excusing themselves so they could catch-up on over one thousand years of separation. The two may not always agree, but what siblings ever do?

)-8-(

Death and Destruction were in the first's personal quarters, they had been discussing this and that for a good time. But now the other was curious about a certain matter that had been nagging at his mind ever since he had arrived, "Brother, are you still holding that foolish grudge against Celestia?"

The pail alicorn sighed as he sat down on the forest green sheets of his bed, he knew his brother would bring this up eventually. This grudge was the whole reason he wanted to dethroning Celestia, but there was more than just a grudge at the center of this, there was also a broken heart. At one time, Death had loved the shining white alicorn princess, and still somewhat does. What made his heart ache the most was that she had returned that love, until that one day. All that he had been doing was ending the suffering of the near dead, even now he doesn't think much about the pain this caused the living.

"I was only doing my duty brother, you know that better than anyone." This statement was only a weak attempt to stop this conversation, and both brothers knew it.

Destruction sat next to his less fortunate brother, "And you know as well as I do that making that decision broke Celestia's heart as much as yours."

Death gave his brother a glare, it was a more upset one than an angry one, "You can only say that because Luna still loves you. I have made my decision, and I intend to stand by it."

The red alicorn sighed, it was as he had feared, his one and only brother was going to make the worst mistake of his life. He knew full well that there was no changing his brother's mind once he set a goal for himself, no matter how ludicrous it was. He did have to admit that Death had somewhat of a point, even after over one thousand years, he felt Luna's love for him still burned strong.

Death got up from sitting on his bed, "Come now brother, the feast will be starting soon."

Destruction sighed once more as he to got off the bed and followed the other to the door. Just as Death was about to go out of the room, he looked back at his brother with a small smile on his face, "We don't want to be late for our own celebration, it would be extremely rude to keep everypony waiting don't you think?"

Destruction couldn't help but snicker at his brother's joke, it was almost like old times... almost.

)-8-(

The banquet hall was filled with conversation and laughter, one could almost see the happiness and joy that filled the massive room. Everypony knew every other pony in the room, even if they could not remember their name's at the moment. Lifelong members and new initiates conversed alike, this was exactly as Death had been hoping it would be.

The feast had been going for hours, one would note that Luna's night had already fallen if one was to look outside. Both brothers were enjoying the festivities, but all good things must come to an end. The room began to fall silent as Death stood to begin his speech.

"My faithful friends, both new and old," The skin and bone alicorn began, "It is good to see all that have seen the light. We are now on the precipice of a new age, an age were none shall have to suffer! But we shall first try to reason with the currently ruling monarchy to accept this change, but we must begin negotiations with a show of strength. Hoofberg is the perfect target, we have no brethren amongst them and its even close by. Prepare for the attack, we begin the morning after tomorrow!"

Destruction could only look as the thousands of ponies began to go to their temporary quarters. '_You don't know what you have put in motion brother, most certainly one shall rise to stop this madness._' Was the thought that was going though his head. Little did he know that this madness is what would rise the one to stop it, it seems that fate does indeed have a sense of humor.


	2. Igniting the Firestorm

(Disclaimer: I do not own any copyrighted material you will encounter in this or any other story.)

(AN: Sorry this took so long, but I have stories I want to keep-up with. And now, I most humbly present to you, the protagonist of this story. For all announcements on this story and my others, please refer to my profile, thank you.)

Chapter 2: Igniting the Firestorm

Light, that was the first thing he saw. He groaned as he tried to roll over, if only he remembered that he was on the edge of his bed. He fell to the floor with a soft thud, it was a rude wake-up call by reality. It may not have actually hurt that much, but he still let out an, "Ow." He slowly opened his baby blue eyes, this was actually the average start to his day. He got to his hooves and walked to his bathroom to look at himself in the mirror, boy was his mane a mess.

This stallion's name was Flame Hooves, he was an eighteen year old fire red unicorn with a bright orange mane and tail. He sighed, this looked to be a good day, especially if his plan for the day went though. He walked back over to his bed to get his brush, he may not be a neat-freak, but his mane was all over the place. He stopped to look at the three pictures on his end table, one was a family picture, the second was a picture of him with his little sister, Rose Petal, on his head, the third was a picture of him and his marefriend, Good Hope. Good Hope was near-white purple earth pony with a navy blue mane and tail, sparkling rose pink eyes, and the image of a white dove as her cutie mark.

Flame opened the end table drawer, and was greeted by a large number of "gold" metals. '_I really need to find some other place to put these things._' He thought to himself with a small frown on his face. He started pulling gold plated plastic metals out of the drawer with his magic, the aura it had was the same color as his eyes. All of these metals were for the exact same activity, racing. He is the fastest runner in the whole town, but he only accepted the praise if he had actually done something to earn it.

When he finally found his brush, he unceremoniously dropped the shaped rounds of plastic back into the drawer, he would put them somewhere else later. He went back into the bathroom and brushed his mane into the somewhat less messy scruffy do that he normally had, Hope had always told him she thought it looked cute. With that done, he went into the kitchen to get some breakfast.

)-8-(

Flame had finished breakfast and was walking to town square to find Good Hope to put his plan into action, and today was the perfect day for this plan. The only clouds in the sky were almost transparent wisps that almost looked as if they were made of gold by the light of the sun, and a light breeze kept the sun's heat from becoming overwhelming. This was the most beautiful days in Hoofberg that Flame Hooves had ever seen, and he has seen a lot of them as one might be able to guess.

His ears perked up at the sound that was getting closer to him, the sound of young foals laughing. He looked in the direction that the laughter was coming from, a rose red unicorn filly with a green mane was running at the head of a small group of other young colts and fillies. This group was Rose Petal and her friends, that being, Flame could not help but playfully tease them a little, "Whoa there, you better watch were your going short-stuff, or do you really want to run somepony over?"

Rose glared at him a little, she knew her big brother was only teasing, but, "Did you just call me short-stuff?"

"What if I did? What are you going to do about it?" He asked with a grin on his face.

The filly looked around as her friends began to get mischievous grins, they all knew what this meant, "Get him!"

With that, all of the little foals jumped at Flame Hooves and piled up on him. They were all laughing as they fell to the ground, even Flame. It was then that they heard the laughter of someone, the very pony Flame had been looking for, Good Hope. The sunlight was shining off her mane as she looked at them with a smile on her face. She turned her gaze to Rose Petal, "Rosy, how about you stop torturing your brother and go play with your other friends?"

"OK! See you two later!" Rose replied as she and her friends ran off, laughing as they went.

As Flame stood once more, he heard his marefriend giggling. Flame had always been good with young foals, that was one of the many reasons she loved him. He smiled before using one of his, by now, famous one-liners, "Piled on by pewees, I'll never hear the end of it will I?"

Hope's giggle turned into a full fledged laugh at that point, she had always loved those things. He loved to make her laugh, it was such a beautiful sound. However, he had a lot more in mind than just this, a **lot** more. This was the perfect time to start getting everything just the way he wanted for his plan, "Say Hope, do you want to come with me to the park? It's a beautiful day to sit under the old oak."

"I'm doing something right now, Nick got the snow globe I ordered. Wait for me by the town square fountain, I'll meet you there when I'm done, alright." She replied kindly, she had always been vary considerate about this sort of thing.

"Okay, see you there." After a quick kiss on the cheek, they parted ways for now. Good Hope had been collecting snow globes for as long as Flame has known her, it was one of those unique things that made her who she is. She buys them from Nick Knack, who sells the kind of things he was named for. Sometimes, he would buy snow globes from Nick to give them to Hope as gifts.

Flame has been dating Hope for years, but he was planing to take the next step in their relationship, the final step. He was planing on taking her to their favorite spot in the park, and proposing to her. He had originally planed to ask her to marry him on her birth day, but his courage had given out before he could even begin to ask. He was going to do it today, even if he made a complete fool of himself in the process.

So it was that he was sitting by the fountain in town square anxiously waiting for Hope to arrive so he could pop the question. To bad fate had a different idea in mind for him, and it was to start in a very dark way...

The ground began to shake and crack like it was getting ready to fall apart all around him, he could barely stay on his hooves. As his legs were shaken out from underneath him, he saw town hall split in half then fall into the deep crevice that was forming were it had once stood. Explosions were going off all around the town. With a start, he realized one of them had come from were Nick Knack's shop was. "Hope!" He cried as he got back up and bolted for were she had been going.

'_Please, please, don't be there now! Just let me find you anywhere but there!_' Flame thought as he built up speed at a fast pace. He saw four ponies in his way, but they were the ones who were attacking. They were wearing pitch black cloaks that covered their entire bodies, two had masks that had marks on them that looked like skulls while the other two had masks that looked like fire. '_You guys are about to get a real headache!_' He was going to show them what happens when you attack his home. Using his magic as he ran, he made a transparent light blue barrier that was shaped like the front of a snowplow.

The four never knew what hit them, but they were sent flying into the air as they were bowled over. A smug grin came across Flame's face as he kept running, that's what you get for attacking his home. As he turned a corner, something pined his tail to the ground. He looked back to see what had happened, that was when he saw... it. It was a pale white alicorn that looked like he was nothing more than skin and bone, his mane and tail were a strange lifeless purple. But it was this beings eyes that scared Flame the most, there was no mercy in those green eyes, just murder. This thing intended to kill him, of that much he was certain. His eyes were darting all around him to find some way out of this, all he could see was a dumpster. He couldn't normally move something than big, but he was desperate. He was hardly able to even cover the surface of the large metal object with his magic, but the thought of Hope possibly being alive and waiting for him gave him strength.

The alicorn was, of coarse, Death. He was preparing to dispatch the unfortunate red stallion he had trapped with his hoof, until he heard the groaning of metal. He snapped his head in the direction of the sound, that is when he saw the large metal dumpster hurtling his way. He jerked as a reaction to this possible threat, but that was all Flame needed. As soon as the white alicorn removed his hoof, he bolted away while dropping the dumpster... he never noticed the necrotic purple sparks climbing up his tail fur.

He could now almost feel the lives of others drifting away from them, but he didn't care about this feeling and simply ignored it. If he had only known what this feeling was a forerunner of, he would have probably let Death just kill him. As it was, he just kept running down the road.

"Flame?" A weak voice called. It wasn't Hope, but this voice caught his attention just as much. He screeched to a halt and looked in the direction of the voice, it was Rose Petal. His heart almost stopped at what he saw, his sister was sprawled on the the ground with one of her legs bent in a way it never should bend and crimson blood was trickling down her sides from various deep cuts. He stumbled over to her, he could feel her life slipping away from her. He practically fell to the ground next to her, "Rose? Short-stuff?"

"Why am I so cold? Why am I so sleepy?" She asked as her eyes began to close, much to her brother's horror.

"Rose! Please don't go to sleep, please!" He exclaimed, but it was already too late. As her eyes closed, her body went limp. He knew she was dead, he could feel it. He had just lost his little sister, he had probably already lost the rest of his immediate family. His thoughts jumped back to somepony he had been hopping to ask join his family, Hope.

Flame literally jumped to his hooves, he did not intend to simply let Hope be added to the massacre. He thundered off at full speed to Nick Knack's shop. There were attacking ponies and debris in his way, but not for long. With both his high speed and his magic made plow, he smashed his way though without much resistance.

When he got to his destination, what he saw nearly made him fall over when coming to a stop. Almost the entire second story was gone, and what was left was kindling with fire. He just about stumbled though the door, which was blown off its hinges. It was then that he saw her, and the condition she was in made his heart nearly stop in horror. Hope was covered in cuts and large splinters, some were about the size and length of his horn. Her mane was burned in places and her own blood was giving her once light purple coat a deep crimson huge. He laid down next to her before whispering, "H-Hope?"

She opened her rose pink eyes, they didn't sparkle as much as they use to, but it was still a beautiful sight to him. He wouldn't let her die, he just couldn't, "Don't worry Hope, I'll get help."

"Flame, wait." He heard her by now weak voice say as he was about to get up. He looked back into her eyes, the look on her face was serious, "Flame, I'm dieing to fast to be helped, just let me spend my last moments with you."

The red stallion's eyes were beginning to fill with tears that were being made by the pain of his heart breaking, "You can't die, you just can't. I-I was going to a-ask you to marry me, y-you can't just die."

She brought a hoof to his cheek with a small smile on her face, "I would have loved to, but I can't now. Flame, don't kill yourself just because I'm gone, your to special for that. I wish I wasn't moving on, but I am, and you should to."

His stray tears now turned to full on crying, "B-but life won't be the same without you."

"Just move on, for my sake at least." She pleaded.

Flame couldn't imagine a life without her, but knew deep in his heart that she was right, "Okay. I-I promise I'll live on, for your sake."

Hope let a weak smile come to her face, she loved him and didn't want him to kill himself when she passed-on. She had only one last request, "Flame, can you spend my last moments with me, let me feel you love before I die?"

Flame wordlessly moved closer to the mare he loved, then he caressed her cheek with the side of his head. He could feel her life beginning to slip away, he thought this was because of his close proximity to her... he would later discover that was not so. He gave her one last kiss, he knew this was the last time he would ever be with her till he to joins her in the afterlife.

"Know that I have always loved you Flame and always will, even in the afterlife. You could always make me smile, even when my soul was crushed. Now, go and find another to make happy, to give your heart to. Don't forget me, but don't let memories of me keep you from living. I could never fully tell you how much I love you, even if I had from now to eternity. You are more special than you think, let somepony else see that fact to. Not just to make me happy, but to make you happy as well." These were the last things she said before her life left her cooling body.

Flame just laid there for, well, he had no idea how long he was there, time had almost lost all meaning to him. Then, with a look of steel in his eyes, he stood to his hooves. He had been helpless to save her, but there were other lives he could save. He trotted to the door before he looked back and said, "I may not have been able to save you, but I'll save as many as I can. I'll miss you."

With that, he began to run down the street to town square, where he guessed any survivors would gather.

)-8-(

In town square, the last of the survivors were doing everything they could do to defend themselves. There were not that many left, out of over two hundred citizens, only thirty nine were still among the living. They were surrounded, to say things looked bleak was an understatement.

Flame could see this, he knew exactly what to do, it was time to live up to his name. He pushed himself to try to go beyond his top speed, he was soon rewarded by sparks flying off his hooves. He timed his boost just right and...

***BOOM!***

His hooves burst into flames as his speed instantly doubled, leaving twin trails of fire behind him. He summoned his battering blow with his light blue magic. If he had cared to look closer, he would have noticed the purple tint it was beginning to develop.

The survivors watched in aw as the attacking ponies around them were sent flying high into the air. One of them, a dark blue earth pony with a light blue mane named Wave Walker, immediately took charge of the situation. The young and injured were loaded onto the backs of the able. They began to orderly run to the northeast, their destination being Ponyville. Wave Walker knew who had saved them from death, all of them knew, "Flame Hooves! We're going to Ponyville, just to the northeast! Cover and clear the way for us till we get to the forest, then get to us!"

Flame snapped about face to clear the way, there were a good number of ponies in the way... but not for long. He plowed though the aggressors with ease, sending every one of them high into the air. There was soon only one pony standing in the way of the survivors, and Flame did not intend to let this one get off easy. He slowed down so that he wouldn't break his neck, and aimed his horn at the unsuspecting pony's chest. He rammed the unfortunate pony horn first, his horn finding its mark between the pony's ribs. Crimson blood began to run onto Flame's head, the black cloaked pony let out a gasp as he began to feel himself die. The enraged red unicorn ripped his horn up, turning the puncture wound into a gaping gash. He looked down at the dieing pony with an ice cold glare, till a deep blue hoof was put on his shoulder.

He looked back to see Wave Walker, "Flame, we need to get out of here, now. I understand that you want revenge, but now is not the time, we can do that later."

The red stallion knew he was right, so he wordlessly followed his elder. The survivors ran into the forest heading toward Ponyville, but soon slowed their pace to a fast walk. None of them were unscathed, they all had cuts and bruises, some were even limping. Others were so bad off that they couldn't even walk, others of the pegasi would probably never be able to fly again. All forty survivors, including Flame, were wearily making their way to their only hope of survival, Ponyville.

However, they were actually walking into a trap. Death didn't plan on letting them go this easy. He did plan on letting them go, yes, but not without hardships. He had setup an ambush halfway between Ponyville and Hoofberg. Four black cloaked ponies waited for the survivors to come by, weapons at the ready. Here they came, all of the injured ponies. Notching arrows on their bows, they prepared to attack.

One of the ponies let an arrow lose to early, hitting one of the unburdened survivors. The arrow slammed into the pony's head, right though his skull. The moment the arrow hit, a dark spark went off in Flame's brain. He clasped his cranium in his forehooves, yelling in pain. His body writhed on the ground in agony as it beginning to burn. Rolling flames began to flow over his body, the red of on his coat turned from a bright red to a dark volcanic red. All of the other ponies were just watching on in aw, nopony knew what in Equestria was happening. His mane was turning from a solid orange to a fiery yellow, orange, and red. A burning sensation began to gather in his horn from the whole of his body, his horn beginning to blaze with small tongs of fire flying off it, burning the blood off it. The intensity of the fire on his horn grew, until a concentrated stream of fire blasted into the air with a spin. The stream turned into four burning ribbons heading toward the four attacking, burning straight though their heads.

As the fire died down, Flame fainted. Wave Walker trotted over to his young friend and hoisted him onto his back, "Come on, we need to get him to an expert to see what happened here."

With nods of agreement, the survivors continued on their way to Ponyville.

)-8-(

Six friends were walking though town to have a picnic, it was a beautiful day after all. It was the mane six who were doing so. Spike was sitting on Twilight's back looking though the picnic baskets just to see what was there, and sneak a few bites of food. It was almost midday, there was barely a cloud in the sky. The six ponies and baby dragon were talking happily, but that was about to change.

It was when they were at the edge of town that they saw it, a large group of ponies walking out of the forest to Ponyville. At first, they were excited that there were going to be new ponies in town. That was when they saw it, the many injures. Picnic forgotten, they ran over to help the unfortunate ponies. Rainbow Dash bolted to hospital to get the doctors. It was at that moment Twilight saw him, a dark volcanic red unicorn stallion with a fire like mane on the back of a dark blue earth pony with a light blue mane.

As she got closer, she saw blood on the smaller stallion's head. A gasp escaped her mouth and she quickly closed the distance, "What happened to him? Why does he have blood on his head?"

The blue stallion shook his head, "None of us know what happened to him, his body was completely changed somehow. The blood on his head, if you really want to know, isn't his."

Twilight looked at the unicorn stallion almost in horror, he had killed somepony. She was also very intrigued, he had gone though a complete bodily change, she had never heard about this sort of thing before. This was when the doctors came to help the poor souls, even doing some on-site emergency stabilization. The lavender mare helped the blue earth pony and the unfortunate red unicorn, even using her magic to get the red one onto a bed.

The librarian decided to get some information about what the strange red stallion use to look like, "Can you tell me exactly what changed about his physical appearance?"

"Well" Wave Walker began, "His coat became a darker red, His mane turned from just an orange to these fire-like colors, and his cutie mark changed to... well, I'm not sure what it is now."

Twilight had a confused look on her face, a full on cutie mark change, that was completely unheard of. She stared at the mysterious stallion, what secrets did his body hide? Never in the recorded history of Equestria had anypony ever have their cutie mark change in the least, but here was somepony who had it change all together. She moved her gaze at his new mark, it was a pool of magma with a phoenix flying out of it. Was it just her, or was the magma bubbling? This cutie mark was a new one on her, she has never heard or read about one like this before. Her gaze shoot back to his closed eyes when a groan came from his mouth.

)-8-(

His whole body felt like the Ursa major had been dropped square on top of him when it was in a bad mood, then left there to smash him with its paws. Bright light began invading the darkness of his mind, so he groaned in slight pain. The light grew brighter as he rejoined the world of the living, why was the light so bright? He slowly opened his eyes, a lavender purple blob was all he could see. As his vision began to settle, the blob began to refine itself into the face of a pony he had never seen before. It was a mare, that much apparent from the shape of her face, only mares have that small of a snout. Her face was a rather pretty one, he had to admit that. She had a plum purple mane with two strips in it, one a deep royal purple and the other hot pink. The horn poking though her bangs confirmed that she was a unicorn. It was her eyes, however, that got his attention, it looked like she had two well carved amethysts for irises.

They both looked into each others eyes for what seemed like the longest time, before the third pony in the room spoke, "It's good to see your awake, my young friend."

He turned his gaze to see a very familiar blue earth pony, "It's good to see you made it here as well, Wave."

A hoof gently prodded his shoulder to get his attention, it was the purple unicorn mare, "I know you two are friends, but you just went though a major physical change and we need to make sure that the magic that did this didn't do permanent damage to you."

"Can I know your name so that I may address you properly?" He asked.

"Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville's librarian and personal student of Princess Celestia." The now identified Twilight told him with a smile.

"Alright, Miss. Sparkle." He began, "where do you want to start with the process of assessing the full effect that magic had on me?"

The purple mare blushed slightly, "Please, just call me Twilight."

He nodded his head to show acknowledgment of her request. That settled, she looked thoughtful for a moment before she spoke again, "Okay. First off, can you remember your name?"

Normally, he would answer a question like this without a thought, but something was wrong. He knew his own name... but that wasn't the name that was trying to come out of his mouth, "I know my name, but I have a strange urge to call myself something else."

Twilight and Wave Walker shared a worried look, this was not a good sign, "And what is that name."

The worried and uncertain look in his still baby blue eyes was obvious, "That name is, Inferno."


	3. New Look, New Life

(Disclaimer: I do not own any copyrighted material you will encounter in this or any other story.)

(AN: For all announcements on this story and my others, please refer to my profile, thank you.)

Chapter 3: New Look, New Life

The now renamed Inferno had been checked by a doctor and given a clean bill of health, he was now walking out of the building with Twilight Sparkle. He had now seen her cutie mark, a pink and white spark with five smaller white sparks around it. She had asked him to stay in the library so she could continue looking into the strange magic that had changed him and what the overall effect of that magic was. He himself was very curious about what had happened to him, and what his new skill might be. She had also said he should meet her friends because he would be staying for some time, it would probably be for the best.

He had a melancholy look on his face, one image was going though his head. That image was of Good Hope's face, his once-upon-a-time marefriend. The thought of Hope being dead made him sad, she had been his only true friend of any of the mares in town that wasn't a family member. He knew she wanted him to move on, but it was going to be very hard.

Twilight made a quick glance his way, only to see him looking at the floor with a frown on his face. Something was most certainly eating at his mind, but what? "Hey, Inferno." She began, "Is something bothering you?"

Hearing her words almost startled him, "Well, yea. I had a marefriend before today, but she died right in front of me. My last promise to her was that I would move on, but I don't know what to do now. I have a new look, new life, and a new skill that I don't know how to use. I can't ask any of my family because they didn't make it though, not even my little sister. There is also the mater of the being that attacked us, I don't know who it was or where he came from."

Twilight didn't know exactly what to think about that statement, she never had anything like this happen to her. Everything and everypony he loved was gone, all taken on the same day. He had also described the unknown pony who had attacked, and just hearing what he looked like sent shivers up her spine. There was also the question of why he did this, the thought of what would cause somepony to do such a thing made her even more scared.

As they walked out of the hospital, Inferno was suddenly face to face with a pink earth pony who hadn't been there a few seconds ago. He made an exclamation of "Gwah!" in surprise as he fell to his rump, '_How in the blazes did she do that!?_'. It was then that the pink mare started speaking at over one hundred words per second, or it sounded that way at lest.

"Hi,I'mPinkyPie!What'syourname?Doyoulikechocolateo rvanilla?Doyoulikecake?Doyoulikeparties?Ohmygoodne ss,Ineedtogetyour'WelcometoPonyville'partyready!Se eyoulater!" And, with that, she zipped away so fast that she was no more than a streak of hot pink.

He stared at the air she had occupied mere seconds ago with a dumb look on his face, '_What just happened?_'. A hoof being put on his shoulder brought him back to reality, he saw an orange limb. The pony this limb belonged to was an orange mare with a blond mane and tail that was done-up in, oh the irony, ponytails. Her head had a big stetson perched on it and her eyes were the same color as a green apple, her cutie mark was an image of three red apples.

"Sorry 'bout that sugercube, that was just Pinky Pie bein' Pinky Pie." The mare explained, "By the way, my names Apple Jack. Whats yours?"

"My name is Inferno." He introduced himself with his new name. He knew his old name, but this new name seemed more fitting to his new look.

"Inferno? What kind of a name is that?" A tomboyish voice berated from a little bit above him.

He shifted his gaze in the direction the voice came from to see a cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tale, and a cutie mark that was a cloud with a lightning bolt that was similarly colored as her mane. She was laughing so hard that tears were coming from her eyes. He didn't get angry from this, instead, the sadness already in his heart was growing as a response.

Twilight saw the sadness in his eyes and didn't want this to continue, "Rainbow Dash! Don't tease him, he has been though enough today as it is!"

The now identified Rainbow Dash, and the other three mares, were startled by the anger in their friend's voice. They did have to admit she had a point, by the way those who he came with looked, he had been though a lot. Inferno himself was covered with quite a collection of cuts and bruises, but that was nowhere near as bad as some of the others.

"I believe Twilight is quite right Rainbow Dash, he certainly does look like he has had an extremely bad day." Spoke a rather refined sounding voice. Inferno looked at the owner of this voice, she was a snow white unicorn with a deep purple curled mane and tale. Her eyes were blue with light blue eyeshadow on her upper eyelids, and her cutie mark was a trio of blue gems. The mare in question turned her eyes toward him, "My name is Rarity, and I do apologize for my friend's brutish behavior, she can be very heartless sometimes."

The blue pegasus crossed her forelimbs and snorted in grudging submission, "Yah, guess so. So what exactly happened to you, you look like you walked though a war zone."

Inferno looked at the ground, his eyes becoming downcast, "I practically did, except for the fact I was running not walking."

The three mare he had just been introduced to looked at him with a shocked expression adorning their faces, Rarity looked like she was about to faint in a dramatic manner. He heard something that sounded like somepony speaking so quietly that one could barely hear them. The sound came from a very timid looking light yellow pegasus with a long light pink mane that cover one of her light blue eyes, her cutie mark was three pink winged butterflies.

"I-I asked if you are a-alright?" She restated, this must be the Fluttershy pony Twilight mentioned earlier.

"Physically, yes. Emotionally, I may never fully heal." He admitted, "Now, I'm not to saying that I won't be able to move on, I'll just have a hole that will always be there."

"What exactly happened out there?" Rainbow Dash asked with shock still evident on her face.

"Yes, perhaps you can tell all of us what happened." Spoke a new regal sounding voice. Inferno whirled around to see a brilliant white alicorn mare with a free flowing prismatic mane and tail, this was none other than princess Celestia. He immediately bowed to her, he knew how to act before royalty despite the fact he had never been in this position before now. He heard something he had never heard before, was the princess giggling?

"Please my little pony, there is no need for such formalities." The ruler of Equestria said still giggling a little.

As Inferno got up, he saw that Celestia was not alone. There was a slightly shorter deep blue alicore mare with a mane and tail that looked like some of the night sky was attached to her, this was without a doubt the recently returned princess Luna. Was the attack on his home really important enough to get the attention of both princesses?

"Please tell unto us what happened this day." Luna spoke, using the old tongue accidentally.

He decided now was as good a time as any to tell about the attack, "My home town of Hoofberg was attacked, the ponies who did it wore pure black cloaks over their entire body. I think they were being lead by an alicorn, he was a pale white with a mane that was this strange lifeless looking purple."

The princesses of the day sighed, the look on her face was one of heart break, "I feared this day would come, but I had hoped he would be willing to put that matter behind us."

Everypony but Luna was rather surprised by this statement. Twilight, however, was the first to voice the question that was on all of their minds, "You know who did this?"

"Yes." The princesses answered with great sadness in her voice, "He use to be such a good stallion, but now... he has turned himself into a monster."

"That he was, but anger can tempt one to become such a beast." Luna said to her sister, "Take it from somepony how has been though such things."

"Princess Celestia?" Twilight asked carefully, "Who is this pony, and how do you know him?"

The bright white alicorn took a shuttering breath before answering, "His name is Death, and he was at one time my colt-friend, a much more caring stallion back then."

The six elements, one baby dragon, and one red stallion look at her in shock. The beloved princess of the day had once had a relationship with that pony turned monster. Tears began to fall down her face, she knew why he did this, and she was to blame for it.

"Young Inferno," Celestia began, the heaviness of her heart in every word, "My own actions are to blame for the lose of life this day, I thought what I was doing was the best thing to do for my subjects, I was so wrong. I thought Death would be willing to forgive and forget this matter, but I always feared something like this would happen."

Inferno looked at the princesses for a long moment before he spoke his mind, "Your majesty, I could never put any blame on you for this. You did what thought best at the time, it was all you could ever do. No pony could ever have guessed this would happen when it did, all that can be done is to prevent this from happened to anypony else."

Celestia gave him a small smile, "You are right, you most defiantly show wisdom beyond your age. Twilight, I wish for you to help Inferno discover what his new special skill, I have a feeling that it may be our best hope of survival though these times."

"Of course princess, I'll help find and master his new skill." The purple unicorn mare said, and she had every intention of doing just that.

)-8-(

Right after getting home, Twilight started trying to help Inferno find his new skill. So far, well... lets just say, things don't look so good so far.

*whine... **POP!** Sizzle*

"Ow! I think I'm starting to get a real bad headache..." Inferno stated as a small wisp of smoke swirled from the now blackened tip of his horn.

"Well... so much for the teleportation spells, maybe we should take a short brake from this." Twilight decided as she crossed said spell off her list. Teleportation had been her best guess at what he might be capable of, seeing as it is supposedly one of the abilities the Greater Phoenix had at its disposal, so much for that idea...

The unfortunate red stallion sat down, then started rubbing his head with a hoof. This day so far has been full of surprises for him; first, his home town gets destroyed; second, his physical appearance changes; now, he discovered that his magical identity has changed as well. His magic has changed from being light blue with a shimmering skin construct and a high opacity, to bright red with a blazing skin construct and a low opacity.

Just then an idea came to him, "What if my new talent isn't in any spell book?"

Twilight put a hoof to her chin and began staring into space as she thought about that possibility. '_She actually looks kind of cute like that._' He thought absentmindedly, then he caught himself, '_Wow there man, don't set off the starting gun now! I know Hope asked me to move on, but I need to give it a little bit of time. Wouldn't want somepony to think that I'm heartless._'

Unaware of Inferno's mental conflict, the lavender mare continued to ponder about his question, '_if that really is the case, how am I suppose to figure out what it is? Maybe if I just think deductively. Let's see, what does his new name, cutie mark, and colors have in common?_' She thought about that for a little bit, then it hit her like a ton of bricks. His new talent was, "Fire!"

"Beg pardon?" He asked, he was confused by her sudden outburst.

"Your new talent has something to do with fire!" She said in an ecstatic voice, "I don't see why I didn't guess that before, everything points to that!"

"Maybe it was because you went strait to the spell book?" he offered in a somewhat teasing manner.

"Yeah... I guess so." Twilight admitted sheepishly, "Now then, how are we suppose to get it working at your will?"

That was a good question, and Inferno knew it. How does one control fire, a wild and unpredictable force? Fire cannot be tamed by its very nature, it has a mind of its own. How was he suppose to do the impossible. '_Unless... what if my mind is one with the mind of fire?_' He thought suddenly, worth a shot. He reached deep into himself with a tendril of conscious thought, very deep. Then, he felt it, a great internal furnace just waiting to be unleashed. Inferno opened a mental pathway to the great fire inside him, then pulled the flames to his horn. It started as occasional small tongs of fire, then became a steady stream, then into a fully fledged flame that covered his entire horn.

Twilight looked at him in awe, eyes wide and pupils dilated. This was the most amazing thing she had ever witnessed, never before had anypony been able to use pyrokinesis, never. But now, here was the first pyrokinetic in recorded history sitting right across the table from her, and he is actually a rather handsome looking stallion now that she thought about it. Wait, why was she thinking about it? She is the personal student of Princess Celestia, she doesn't have the time for a coltfriend, right?

Inferno let the flames recede back into him, he was exhausted from just that little expenditure. That was not good in the least, he could only imagine what would happen to him if he had to do something much more complicated. He sighed in slight frustration, "I'm going to have to put my magic though some serious training."

Him speaking broke Twilight from her thoughts and started her a little before her mind registered what he had said, "We can't go to fast, if you push yourself to hard you could kill yourself."

"Yeah, you could use all of your energy and fall over dead!" Spoke a new voice to this conversation. The speaker was Spike, Twilight's adopted purple and green scaled baby dragon. He was her number one assistant, he had a bit of knowledge about magic, but not much. He was right about that though, Inferno would just fall over dead if he used all of his magic energy and started using his life energy up. Not the best way to go.

"Same way with anything, a pony needs to increase their roof little by little. That is what I did when I was training my body to run, and I became the best at it. My old cutie mark showed that." He replied.

Twilight looked him over, his physic was certainly one of an athlete. A masculine yet sleek figure built with well toned muscles, especially his limbs. If he was to ever want to get a new marefriend, every mare in town would probably fight over him. Her rebellious mind, however, soon made an image she really didn't need. She averted her eyes in a way that she hoped would go unnoticed, Celestia's sun was setting.

"We should probably wait until tomorrow to start, its getting late." She said in hopes that Inferno would agree before her mind could take things in a very bad direction.

Inferno looked outside himself, "Blazes, your right. I didn't realize it was almost nighttime."

She sighed inwardly in relief, "Spike, I need to finish putting my notes together. Can you show Inferno where the guest bedroom is?"

Spike nodded then motioned for the red stallion to follow him up the stairs, which said stallion did. Twilight sighed as soon as he left the room and walked to the window, '_Do I really not have time for a coltfriend? Or am I simply overreacting?_'

)-8-(

Celestia sat on her royal throne, her normally smiling face now covered with a frown of sadness. All of the deaths this day were her fault, and she knew it. She should have reacted differently all those years ago, then this massacre would have never happened, and he would probably still be his normal cheerful self.

"Sister," Luna spoke from her throne next to Celestia, "We know that you are still blaming yourself for what happened today."

The princesses of the sun nearly burst into tears at this point, something that rarely ever happened, "Why did I act so rashly? I should have tried to reason with him, not banish him. Now, he'll probably never listen because of what happened!"

"You will simply drive yourself to the brink of insanity if you dwell on the past, nopony can undo the past. All you can do is act in the best interest of your subjects and hope you find a way to bring his insanity to an end." Said the deep voice that now echoed around the throne room, a voice that was followed by a blood red alicorn.

Luna quite literally jumped out of her throne and, much to the confusion of the guards, proceeded to rap the stallion in a normally bone crushing hug, "I knew you'd come back! I just knew it!"

Destruction, for it was he, laughed heartily, "Why would I not come back to you Luna?"

"It is good to see that at least one of you two stallions has a level head." Celestia said as she walked over to him, the guards were now thoroughly and utterly confused.

"In my opinion, it is unfortunate that only one of us has a level head." He replied with a bow of his head in the elder sister's direction, "But, seeing Luna again was not the only reason I came here."

Both princesses were surprised by this, the look they gave him said the unspoken question of what was he talking about.

"Before today, there were only six spirits waiting to unlock their full potential, now there are seven."

"But how can this be?" Luna asked, "There are only six Elements of Harmony?"

"A new spirit has taken on one of the ancient elements, and I believe will also put an end to my brother's madness." The large red stallion told them.

Celestia scratched her chin with a hoof, "I will keep an eye out for this new spirit, but I believe you two have a long belated date to go on."

Both Destruction and Luna smiled at this, they sure did. The two alicorns walked out to the gardens, chatting and laughing like they had all those years ago. Celestia smiled sadly, if only she and Death could be like that again.

When they were well out of earshot, she spoke, "So, young Inferno, I knew there was something special about you. But, the question is, when will you find your element?"


	4. Griffon the Brush Off

(Disclaimer: I do not own any copyrighted material you will encounter in this or any other story.)

(AN: For all announcements on this story and my others, please refer to my profile, thank you. Now we get an actual episode with Inferno added to it! Yay! Now, I know this chapter took a long time, but my family has been doing house work. Who knew painting a bathroom could be so much trouble... P.S. If you want to know what Wave Walker's voice sounds like, just think of Gandalf, only younger.)

Chapter 4: Griffon the Brush Off

It was a rather beautiful day in Ponyville, especially considering the events of two days ago. Most of the survivors were still in the recovery ward, others had been taken-in by the kindhearted residents of the town. Wave Walker, one of the few of Inferno's close friends to get out alive, had found both a place to stay and a new job at Sweet Apple Acres. As for the aforementioned red stallion, he was exercising his new pyrokinetic ability in the park with Twilight Sparkle, who was sitting on a bench reading a book. The mental pathway to his internal fire was getting stronger at an accelerated rate, he could get a tendril of fire off his horn now and he can maintain that fire for almost a minute.

Pinky Pie's constant jabbering wasn't making things any easier. Even though he was ignoring the pink party mare, her occasional defiance of the laws of gravity were hard to ignore. As she finally bounced off, both he and Twilight let out a sigh of relief.

"Is she always like this? I've been here for only two days and my sanity is already hanging by a thread when she's around." The young pyrokinetic complained as he extinguished his flames at will.

The lavender mare sighed again, "Yes she is, and my sanity is in just as much risk of giving way when she is around, and I've been here longer than you have."

Inferno laughed as he wiped the sweat from his brow, "When I try to find a new marefriend like I promised Good Hope I would, Pinky is certainly not on the list."

This statement came as a surprise to Twilight. He had just announced that he would soon be, as some mares put it, back on the market... and she was the first mare to know. She had known that he had promised the late Good Hope to move on, but she did not know he was going to try and get a new marefriend, "You-you promised her to try and find a new marefriend?"

His eyes gained a sad look in them, "She told me herself to find somepony else to give my heart to, for both her sake and my own. I know I'll just become miserable and depressed if I don't, and already having had a marefriend gives me the blessing of knowing how precious every moment I spend with her is."

'_Wow, if his looks don't get him a mare, his romantic side will definitely get him one._' She thought to herself. She couldn't help but wonder if she was on his list, and what other mares were on it...

)-8-(

Later that day, the two unicorns were in town. Inferno was by Apple Jack's stall in the market talking with Wave Walker, they were talking about who from their town had gone where. Twilight was going to the book store with the intentions of finding something that might help her flirt with the red pyrokinetic, if she truly had time for a coltfriend that is. That question was her biggest problem, it was even beginning to take a bite out of her sleep. She was actually beginning to want a coltfriend, but she hadn't asked Celestia what she thought about it, partly because she feared the princess would tell her no.

"Twilight, have you seen Rainbow Dash anywhere?" Pinky Pie inquired as she walked up to the librarian.

"Isn't she right up there?" The questioned mare asked in returned as she pointed to a cloud strait over her.

"Rainbow Dash!" Pinky called in a voice loud enough to gain the attention of the two conversing stallions.

As soon as the cyan pegasus heard that, she was off like an arrow from a crossbow. Pinky then began to bonce after the flying pony with a cartoony spring like sound. Both Wave Walker and Inferno trotted over and looked in the direction she had gone with a confused expression plastered on both their faces.

"What in Equestria was that about?" The deep blue stallion asked in utter bewilderment.

Twilight shrugged, "I guess Pinky wants to hangout, and Rainbow doesn't for some reason."

"Maybe its because she values her sanity?" Inferno put in.

The three looked at each other for a moment before they began laughing. After they calmed down a little, Wave Walker spoke, "You still got it Flame, I mean, Inferno. You always know what to say and when to say it to make a pony laugh."

The eighteen year old stallion smiled, he had always had a talent for that, he had originally thought his cutie mark would have something to do with that. It was going to be one of his best tools when looking for a new marefriend, and boy did he have a lot of cute mares to chose from. Almost every mare in town was single with a good percentage of them being around his age, and a majority of those that fit into those categories were good looking too. But he wanted to find a mare that had a good personality as well, there were already a good number of mares that he knew that had that.

)-8-(

After finishing in the market, the two went back to Twilight's "tree house", as Inferno called it. The reason for that name being that the house was literally made out of a tree, and the tree is still alive. As for what they were doing, Inferno was taking a power nap, like he always did after training. Twilight, on the other hoof, was doing a bit of alchemy.

She wrote some notes of what she was doing, but what she wrote disappeared as soon as she looked away. She then added a new chemical to the mix and turned to keep making notes, only to discover that what she had already wrote was gone. She looked back and forth between the liquid and the scroll in confusion, until she heard the bubbling getting louder. Then...

*BOOM!*

The noise made Inferno jolt awake and immediately think Ponyville was under attack, he jumped off his bed in the guest bedroom and ran down the stairs. The sight that he saw however was as far from an attack as one can get, the room was covered with a thick purple sludge that smelled rather fowl.

"Twilight? Where are you?" He called into the goo covered room.

With a sickly slurping noise, Twilight pealed off the wall with the goo covering her underbelly and inner-legs as well as leaving a perfect impression of her silhouette in the sludge on the wall. '_Thank goodness the goo covered __that__ part of her body._' He thought with a slight cringe. One might think he had seen it before, but both he and Hope had agreed to wait until after mirage to even talk about such things. He decided to change the the subject his mind was going on about, "Wh-what happened in here?"

The goo covered mare gave an annoyed look out the only open window, though which uproarious laughter came in, "They, happened."

The stallion looked out said window, and there were Pinky Pie and Rainbow Dash. They were laughing so hard that they almost fell off the branch they were perched on. Inferno thought for a moment before an evil smirk came over his face, he summoned fire to his horn then he tried something he never had done before... he threw some of his fire in their general direction with a, "Look out over there!"

Both mares immediately looked his way and got out of the way of the incoming fireball, they succeed and the ball of flame flew out the window harmlessly. Twilight looked on in shock at the fireball as it flew by, how did he do that? She looked back at the pyrokinetic with a shocked expression on her face.

"Well," He said while panting slightly, "Glad to see that that idea worked."

The lavender mare stared at him incredulously, "You didn't even know if that would work and yet you tried it?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Did you ever stop to think about if the energy required to do that was more than your body could take?"

"Oh, I guess I forgot to do that..."

Twilight almost face-hoofed, until she remembered her hoof was covered in the muck that was all over the room. This was going to be a long day.

)-8-(

After taking the rest of that day to clean the mess, the three residents of the library/house went to bed. Inferno slept like a rock were as Twilight's sleep was fitful, the question of whether she had time for a coltfriend or not was really nagging at her. The next day she practically dragged herself out of bed and put on a face that she was only slightly tired, and Inferno fell for it. After breakfast, They went to the park with the intentions of seeing how many fireballs he could throw at one time.

Four flaming spheres flew up into the air in a random pattern.

"I think I can try for five, throwing fire seems to take less energy than controlling tendrils of it." Inferno said as he shifted his gaze from the sky to the lavender unicorn.

"Alright, just don't push yourself to hard." She told him as she looked up from her book, which didn't have a title on the cover.

"Okay, here goes." He closed his eyes and flung some of his fire up to the sky.

When he opened his eyes, he saw two individuals about to get hit, "Look out!"

The two contrails quickly veered to the side and down before crashing not to far away behind a hill, this was not good.

Twilight bookmarked her place and returned the book to her saddlebag in an instant, "Who were they? Are they okay?"

"One of them was Dash, I'd recognize that multicolored contrail anywhere, but I don't know who the other pony was. We need to see if they're alright." Inferno told her as he began to run towards the crash site.

Both of them ran over the hill that separated them from the crash site. When they crested the hill, they saw that Rainbow Dash wasn't flying around with another pony, but with a griffon.

"Are you both alright?" The red stallion inquired as he came to a stop near them.

"Apart from a few twigs being caught in my mane, I'm fine. What about you?" The cyan pegasus asked her griffon companion.

The griffon, who Inferno could now tell was female, stood in a rather proud manner before waving her claw and saying, "Don't worry, my feathers just got a little ruffled, nothing major."

Twilight let out a sigh of relief, but then a question popped into her head, "Say Dash, who's your friend here?"

"The name is Gilda, me and Dash were friends when we went though Junior Speedster Flight camp together." The now identified Gilda answered.

"Nice to meet you Gilda, and sorry about those fireballs, I have to close my eyes to concentrate hard enough to do that." Inferno apologized with a sheepish smile.

This apology caught the chimaera by surprise, seeing as there had never been a pyrokinetic pony before, "Y-you did th-that?"

"When his hometown was destroyed, some unknown magic turned him into the first pyrokinetic unicorn in recorded history." Twilight explained to her.

"Ya, so how about you keep exercising those fire powers of yours while me and Gilda catch-up on some high speed flying, okay?" Dash said before taking to the sky without waiting for an answerer. Gilda cast Inferno one last glance before following her friend, that glance was full of fear.

)-8-(

Later that day, he went into town to talk with Wave Walker in the market place. The conversation started about how they might try to help a musician get out of his state of depression, but eventually went to more personal maters when they realized that there was nothing that could be done for him.

"I really do miss my old riverboat, but I guess it was high time I move on." The deep blue stallion said.

Inferno sighed, "I know, I'm going to miss those days we spent on the river; just you, me, and Hope. Yep, I'll miss them."

Wave Walker nodded, then he began to smirk, "Speaking of Hope, when are you going to look for a new marefriend like I'm guessing she asked you to?"

"H-how did you know that?" Inferno asked his old friend in shock.

"How long did I known you two?"

"Years."

"Exactly." The once riverboat captain said with a smile.

"Well," The younger stallion began, "I have a lot of mares to look at, and I only know six of the ones in town personally."

"And what about those six?" Wave Walker asked out of genuine curiosity.

Inferno put a thoughtful look on his face, "Two of them I'm not considering, with those two are Pinky Pie and Rarity. Rarity because she just isn't my type, not to mention she already has a "secret" admirer. As for Pinky, well, need I even explain?"

Wave laughed a little at that statement, "That one is self-explanatory, but what about the other four?"

Inferno became thoughtful once more, "Well, Twilight is rather nice, and I spend most of my time around her. She is smart and logical, she also has a good figure no mater what she herself thinks. Then there's AJ, honest and hard working. Rainbow is a good mare as well, even if she teased me a little at first. She is a good looking fellow athlete. Granted, her bragging does tend to get on my nerves, but that is just a small pet-peeve. As for Fluttershy, she is a bit shy, but that just adds some of the appeal to her. Her beauty, well... I don't even have to explain, because she's right there."

The older blue stallion looked in the direction his friend was looking, and there she was. She was thin, but not anorexic. Her soft pink mane and tail were long and curved up at the tip, and her wing feathers almost looked like gold in the sunlight. No doubt about it, she is a beauty. She was walking backwards leading a family of ducks at the moment, but the angel they were at thankfully prevented them from seeing her flank.

"Well, good luck with her if you try to date her, she would probably pass out if you asked her." Wave Walker said as he turned his gaze back to his friend.

Inferno snorted out a chuckle before he responded, "Ya, that's very possible, and it seems like that would indeed be her response."

The two began to laugh quietly at that, until the two of them heard yelling from the market square. Both immediately whipped their heads toward the ruckus, there was a griffon yelling at the shy yellow pegasus. Poor Fluttershy was trying to apologize, but the griffon wasn't having any of it.

The red stallion couldn't watch the innocent mare being bullied in this way, so he jumped into action. He made a strand of fire fly between the two, it was closer to the griffon though. Gilda, for it was she, jumped a few feet away from the fire. It was then that he jumped in front of the mare in a defensive stance.

"What is going on here?" He asked Gilda in a deceptively calm voice, the fire in his eyes and twitching muscles clearly showed that he was holding himself back.

"I-I was just walking along when she bumped into me!" The chimaera accused starting as a stutter but becoming bolder towards the end.

"She was walking backwards and leading some of her animals, how in Equestria was she suppose to see you?" Inferno asked in response to the accusation.

Gilda looked around herself nervously, she was losing this argument, and she knew it. Normally, she would try to goad ponies she knows she is going to lose an augment with into attacking her and then use her diplomatic immunity to get them in trouble, she was the daughter of the griffon's king after all. The fire dancing around his horn, however, scared her right down to the core of her being. Gilda had told very few individuals, a number she could actually count with her claws, about her only true fear. That fear was fire. She had watched many a griffon being burned to death for high treason, the pain filled screams and wails still haunt her at night.

If the pony standing in front of her truly was a master of the blazing flames, then he was a force to be reckoned with. She just had to get out of here, forget winning an argument, she could very well lose her life. With that thought in mind, Gilda bolted into the air and as far away as possible from the fire welder as fast as her wings could go.

Inferno extinguished his fire and turned around to look at Fluttershy, "Are you alright?"

The light yellow mare nodded her head somewhat weakly, "Yes, I'm just startled, that's all."

Before anything else could be said, Pinky Pie barged in on the conversation, "She's a grump and a thief and a bully, the meanest kind of mean-meany-pants there is. I can take it, but no one treats Fluttershy like that! No, one! This calls for extreme measures, Pinky Pie style!"

That being said, she zipped off to prepare her "extreme measures", what ever it was. The Fluttershy and Inferno just had a confused look on their faces. Wave walked over and ended the awkward silence with, "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

)-8-(

"Well, this isn't as bad as I thought it would be, I guess." The well built deep blue stallion said as he looked at the party decorations that covered the main room of Sugar Cube Corner.

Inferno, unlike his twenty one year old friend, was a little irked by this. Gilda had been showing her true colors around the town for a good amount of time before this party, and he didn't like what he saw one little bit. Stealing from market stalls whenever it suited her, scaring ponies senseless just for laughs, and insulting ponies to their faces. If he knew how, he would be blowing fire from his nostrils.

It was then he saw Fluttershy walk over to Pinky and asked, "Um, Pinky Pie, about this party for Gilda, um, do you really think this is a good idea? I mean..."

The party mare didn't let her finish before she said, "Don't worry your pretty little head about mean old Gilda, your aunty Pinky Pie has it all taken care of!"

It was hard for Inferno not to smile at the angry look Fluttershy was giving Pinky after getting patted of the head, it was to cute to be taken seriously. She then made a statement that surprised him a little, that statement was, "I'm a year older than you."

"Now that's news to me." He said as he walked over to her, "Look, if Gilda gives you trouble, just stay by me, I'll make sure nothing bad happens."

The shy mare looked at him in surprise, "You-You would really do that?"

The pyrokinetic gave her a reassuring smile, "What are friends for?"

She smiled back at him... until the guest of "honor" arrived, her face adopted a panicked expression at the sight of the chimaera. As Pinky began talking to Gilda, Fluttershy tried to hide behind Inferno, who was giving Gilda a sour look. That sour look soon turned to laughter, however, when Pinky used a hoof shake buzzer on the now unfortunate griffon. For a few moment after, it look as if Gilda was about to yell at her, until Rainbow walked over and complemented the prank.

Things only went down hill for poor Gilda after that. First, the vanilla lemon drops had dragon peppers, the hottest kind of pepper in Equestria, mixed into them. Then, when she tried to quench the heat with some punch, she found out that it was served in a dribble cup. After that, she got a scare that made her feathers puff up when springy snakes popped out of a present. Then, there were the relighting birthday candles on the cake. Finally, in a grand crescendo of failure, she slipped on some icing all the way into the kitchen after not trusting what Pinky had told her when they atempted to play pin the tail on the pony.

"Uh, Gilda, you pined the tail on the wrong end." Pinky stated as the seriously annoyed griffon came out of the kitchen. She was covered in batter and had the fake tail on her beak in a way that made it look like a mustache, an absolutely hilarious sight. Inferno was laughing so hard his ribs hurt.

Gilda, on the other hoof, didn't find it so funny. She let lose a beast like roar and then proceeded to insult everypony, "This is your idea of a good time! I've never met a lamer bunch of dweebs in all my life, and Pinky Pie, you are Queen Lamo with your weak little party pranks! Did you really think you could make me lose my cool?!"

"Was that suppose to be a rhetorical question, because it sure as cinders sounded like one to me." The now angry Inferno said as he stomped over to her.

Gilda, however, didn't give him an answerer as she stormed over to the door, "Come on Dash, we're bailing on this pathetic scene!"

It was then that Rainbow Dash revealed a secret, "You know Gilda, I was the one who set up all those weak pranks at this party!"

Gilda, along with almost everypony else in the room, was greatly surprised by this revelation, "What!"

Dash then got right up in Gilda's face, "So I guess I'm Queen Lamo."

Inferno couldn't help but think, '_Talk about fair weather friends._'

Gilda was trying to salvage the situation, and doing a poor job at it, "Come on Dash, your Joshin' me."

"They weren't all meant for you specificity," Dash explained, "It was just dumb luck you set them all off."

Inferno, who was standing next to Twilight, leaned over to said mare and whispered, "I didn't use to believe in karma, but evidence is quickly piling up in its favor."

As Twilight tried to contain her snickering, Gilda tried miserably to stop the downward spiral her friendship with Dash was taking, "No way, i-it was Pinky Pie! She set up this party to trip me up, to make a fool of me!"

"Me?!" The accused pink mare exclaimed, "I threw this party to improve your attitude, I thought a good party might turn that frown upside down."

"And you sure didn't need any help making a fool of yourself," Rainbow Dash told her with Inferno chiming in his cerement before she continued, "You know, this is now how I thought my old friends would treat my new friends! If being cool is all you care about, maybe you go find some new cool friends someplace else."

"Yah, well you-you-you are such a-a flip-flop, cool one minute and lame the next-" Gilda attempted to win the argument.

"She got the hospital ponies when the injured survivors of our hometown got here," Inferno began as he and Wave Walker walked towards her, "She gave those who could still fly a temporary job, she befriended me even though I'm technically a magic-made freak, and she even gave some of her own blood to save a pony's life; if anyone here is lame, then that someone is you Gilda."

"Your nothing but a spoiled self-centered brat, in other words, an overgrown nestling." Wave Walker added with a disdain filled look.

Gilda was standing there with her mouth hanging open, there was no possible way for her to win this argument. So, she did the only thing she could do, run from the truth.

Inferno unconsciously snorted two small plumes of fire from his nostrils before Spike spoke, "Wow, talk about a party pooper."

Everypony else muttered various agreements to the dragon's comment.

"I'm sorry everypony for bringing Gilda here, I didn't knew how rude she was and Pinky Pie, I'm really sorry she ruined that awesome party you put on for her." Dash said with genuine regret.

Pinky looked over to Dash with a smile, "Hey, if you want to hang out with party poopers, that's your business."

"I'd rather hang out with you." Dash told her, "No hard feelings?"

"No hard feeling." She confirmed.

Both reached out to shake hooves, but both got shocked as soon as they did. This was met with laughter, including that of the victims/pranksters. Both turned their hooves over to reveal a hoof shake buzzer on each on their hooves.

It was then that Twilight walked over to Pinky to tell her, "Hey Pinky, I'm sorry I accused you of misjudging Gilda, looks like I misjudged you..."

Pinky put a hoof around the lavender mare, "Its okay Twilight, even you can't be a super-smart-smarty-smart-pants all the time."

"Come on everypony, there's still a whole lot of party left to finish!" Pinky announced as she started to bounce up and down.

This was met with uproarious laughter all around the room, even from Twilight. Inferno, who was still standing next to Twilight, felt something stir in him when heard her laugh. It sounded like Hope, but it had a unique something to it. He had heard that the eyes were the windows to the soul, but the laugh was the voice of the soul. There was always something magic about hearing Good Hope laugh, did Twilight have that to? Or was it just his imagination?

)-8-(

_Dearest Princes Celesta,_

_Today I learned it is hard to accept when somepony you like wants to spend time with somepony who's not so nice, though its impossible to control who your friends hang out with, it is possible to control your own behavior, just continue to be a good friend, in the end the difference between a false friend and one who is true will surly come to light._

_Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle_

"So that's what a friendship report sounds like, it sounds really good." Inferno said as Spike breathed his magic green fire over the scroll which immediately turned into ash and green smoke that began to fly to Canterlot.

Twilight blushed a little at the compliment, "Thanks Inferno, did you enjoy your self at the party?"

The red stallion smiled and nodded, "Yah, not only did I get to know the friends I already have better, but I also made some new ones. Like Lyra Heartstrings, you know, the musician."

"Isn't she a filly-fooler?" Twilight asked in confusion.

"No, that's just a bad rumor. She and Bonbon are just friends that were unable to afford to rent an apartment by themselves, so they combined their funds and became room-mates. She told me that they even sleep in different rooms, but someponies just can't get their minds out of the gutter." He explained.

"Oh... I see." She said, then she began to think about something, "I'm just wondering what happened to Gilda after she left..."

Inferno's face took on a concerned look, "She may be a jerk, but I'm worried about her to, especially with Death out and about..."

)-8-(

Gilda sat on a high cliff that overlooked Ponyville as she quietly wept. Rainbow Dash was one of very few friends she had, and the one she was the closest to, and she had lost her. Most individuals just pretended that they wanted to be her friend just so they could increase their political position, and she knew it.

That sadness soon turned to anger, she was princess Gilda Ironclaw of the Griffon Empire! she didn't apologize, she got even, "I'll get her for turning on me!"

"Perhaps you could tell me about it."

Gilda froze, the voice that said that sounded powerful yet whisper like. She turned her head around slowly, and what she saw made her blood run cold. It was a gaunt pail white alicorn with green eyes and a writhing mane that was a strange purple that, although bright in color, looked lifeless. This being could most likely kill her in an instance if is wanted to, of that much she was certain.

"I know what its like to be rejected and despised for no apparent reason, I think a friendship between us could prove, mutually beneficial." He said as he sat down next to her.

"I'm princess of the Griffon Empire." She deadpanned.

He looked at her with a smile, "And I'm the leader of a revolution in Equestria, one that is gaining quite a bit of momentum might I add."

"So, you could arrange her death?"

"Now, now, my friend, I have leaned from personal experience that there truly are things **much** worse than death."

It was now very obvious to Gilda that they were going to be best of friends...

(AN: Oh my... I AM evil aren't I.)


	5. Boast Buster

(Disclaimer: I do not own any copyrighted material you will encounter in this or any other story.)

(AN: Well, this will be a good chapter, of that I'm certain. For all announcements on this story and my others, please refer to my profile, thank you.)

Chapter 5: Boast Buster

It had been a few days since Gilda had come and gone, and those days were relatively peaceful. Most of the injured ponies from Hoofberg were out of the hospital, there were a few pegasus that would never be able to fly again and some unicorns who had to get their horns amputated. Inferno was getting better at manipulating his fire, and he had discovered that he could manipulate fire from an outside source. What is Twilight doing right now, well...

"Come on Twilight, you can do it!" Spike cheered her on.

"Okay, here it goes." The lavender mare said before she began to focus her magic.

A sparkling purple glow began to cover Spike's snout. Then, a thick black mustache sprouted from his scaled face, something that confused Inferno to no end. It wasn't supposed to be physically possible for the little guy to even have hair.

Spike, however, didn't seem to mind, "Haha, you did it! Growing magic, that's number twenty five, twenty five types of tricks, and counting."

Twilight smiled and blushed at the compliment, she sure looked cute like that.

"And she's modest about it to." Inferno added, which just made her blush harder.

Spike, more interested in his own appearance than Twilight's now crimson red cheeks, looked at himself in a mirror and said, "And I think this is the best trick so far, hello Rarity. What's that? Aw, its nothing, just my awesome mustache!"

"Sorry Romeo, as attractive and enticing as you look, its just for practice and its got to go." Twilight told him before she began to concentrate on removing the facial hair.

"Wait!" The dragon exclaimed before trying to defend his new mustache, a task that he failed miserably at, "Oh, rats."

The two ponies in the room started to laugh a little at his reaction, it was actually rather funny.

"You do realize that it doesn't take a change in appearance or personality to get a mare to truly fall in love with you, right?" Inferno asked the baby dragon.

"Then what does it take?"

The stallion sighed in exasperation, "If a mare is in true love with you, she will love you for who you are on both the inside and the outside, not for some mask you put on and hide your true self under. I learned that from Hope, she told me that after I asked her why she was dating me when she was beautiful enough to go out with any colt she wanted, that was very early on in our relationship as you can guess."

"That fact is probably just as true with Rarity as it was with Hope, and just about any mare for that matter." Twilight informed him.

"Wow, being with Hope really made you smart about these things Inferno." Spike praised.

Inferno smiled sadly and nodded, by the eternal flames did he miss Hope. Wait, when did he use idioms like that?

)-8-(

Twilight, Inferno, and Spike were walking to the market square to meet up with their friends. Inferno was a bit distracted with his thoughts, he had just now realized that he had been subconsciously using fire related idioms for over a week, not to mention he had accidentally eaten one of the dragon pepper infused vanilla lemon drops without it having much of an effect on him. Just how much and what in his body was changed by that magic?

"Twenty five Twilight, Twenty five different kinds of tricks and counting." Spike randomly exclaimed, "I thought unicorns were only supposes to have a little magic that matches their special talents?"

"True," Twilight began, "For ponies who's talents are for things like cooking, or singing, or math. But what if a unicorns special talent is magic?"

"Like you Twilight, and you know a ton of magic." Spike told her.

The lavender mare smiled bashfully, "Oh Spike, stop. I'm sure there are lots of ponies right here in Ponyville that know just as much magic as me."

"I'd actually have to agree with Spike on this one, Twilight." Inferno put in, "Since magic is your special talent, you know more of it than anypony else."

Before any more could be said, a voice that sounded completely devoid of any sort of intelligence called out, "Gang way, comen' though!"

It was then that two young colts ran right into Spike, one was thin and tall with a yellow coat and dark mint green mane and had a snail for a cutie mark while the other was fat and short with a blue-green coat and an orange mane with a pair of scissors as his cutie mark. Inferno's memory of Rose Petal and her friends doing almost the same thing flashed before his eyes, the mental pain caused a tear to come to his eye.

"Snips, Snails, What's going on?!" Spike exclaimed.

Both colts came to an immediate stop, throwing the unfortunate dragon a distance away, "Wha, haven't cyou heard? There is a new unicorn in town!"

"They say that she has more magical powers than any other unicorn, ever!" Snips told the young dragon.

The volcanic red stallion's face became one of annoyance, "They say, or she says?"

"Where is this unicorn?" Twilight asked with some concern.

"She's in the town square, come on!" Snails then jumped over Spike.

"Ya, come on!" Snips said before he ran after his dimwitted friend.

)-8-(

Almost everypony in town was gathered in town square as the three friends tried to get to the front of the crowd, there was a large cart in the front with a voice proclaiming the prescience of the "Great and Powerful Trixie." A stage and props folded out from the cart, then the "Great and Powerful Trixie" herself appeared on the stage in a cloud of purple smoke. She was a blue unicorn with violet eyes and a blue tinted platinum mane and tail, her cutie mark was a magician's wand with a spark at the end of it and a crescent moon over it.

"Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie preforms the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!" The show pony announced with fireworks and fanfair.

"My, my, my, what boasting." Rarity commented.

"Come on, no pony is a magical as Twilight!" Spike exclaimed, then he realized that Rarity was standing right next to him.

Fortunately for the love sick dragon, Inferno cut in, "Ya, Twilight is the Element of Magic after all."

"You done got that right." Wave Walker said from next to Inferno as Twilight began a conversation with the other girls.

"'Done got it', man, the Apple family is really beginning to rub off on you Wave." Inferno told his old friend with a chuckle.

The sea blue stallion rubbed the back of his head with a hoof, "Ya, I guess they have, I don't sound like some back-county hic do I?"

Inferno laughed a little at that, "Not with a voice like yours, you can sound dignified no matter how you say something."

"Well, well, well, it seams we have some naaaiiiy sayers in the audience." Trixie said indigently, then she continued, "Who is so ignorant as to challenge the magical ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie?!"

"Do they no know that they are in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria?" She asked the crowd.

Inferno leaned over to Wave and whispered, "Doesn't she know that actions speak louder than words?"

"Either that or they show that one's words hold no weight." Wave Walker confirmed.

"You said it Wave Walker." Said a dark steel gray pegasus as he walked over to them. He had a silver mane that hung down to his mid-shoulder on the right side of his body with a thin bang that hung above the deep green eye on that side of his face, his tail hung down to his back knee and was the same silver as his mane. His hooves were black with some fur hanging over the top of them, and he had a black diamond shaped mark on his head. The cutie mark on his flank was a code cypher, he only had his left wing and a small stump where his right wing once was.

"Cypher? Is that you?" Inferno asked in shock, he didn't know that his code-breaking friend had lost one of his wings.

"Ya, the broken bone in my right wing somehow got infected, so they had to amputate it." Cypher told his friend, "They also said something about me not making it if it hadn't been for somepony donating some blood."

It was then that Rainbow Dash flew up to Trixie and began to question the show mare. After, Trixie began boasting again. This time, it was some hog-wash about defeating an Ursa major, as if.

As Inferno looked at Dash, a mischievous grin began to split his face, "Just so you know Cypher, that mare over there with the multicolored mane was the donor, she saved your life."

"She did?" The gray stallion asked, he then looked Dash over. If the blush developing on his face was anything to go by, he liked what he saw.

The mood was completely wrecked, however, when Snips opened his fat little mouth, "That settled it!"

"Trixie truly is the most talented, most magical, most awesome unicorn in Ponyville!" Snails added.

"No, in all of Equestria!" Snips put in.

"If she actually has **any** hard evidence to support that story, that is." Cypher said so that everypony could hear him.

"Don't believe the Great and Powerful Trixie? Well then, I hereby challenge you Ponyvillens. Anything you can do, I can do better." Was her response to what was said.

"Any takers? Anyone?" She asked obnoxiously, "Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest equine who has ever lived?!"

"Not exactly the response I was expecting..." Cypher muttered as Spike tried to convince Twilight to put Trixie to shame.

"Hm" Trixie looked over the crowd, her eyes more focused on the lavender mare than anypony else, "How about-"

Inferno knew that Trixie was going to single out Twilight, he also knew that Twilight did not want to make it look like she was a show pony herself. So, he took action, "I accept your challenge, Trixie."

All eyes were on him, and Trixie was a little surprised by this. Those who had lived in Ponyville were themselves surprised by this, but those who came from Hoofberg had more or less expected it. Inferno was well know to take on challenges to defend his friends, even if he was not quite up to par for it.

The red stallion walked onto the stage, then he faced Trixie, "You claim that anything we can do, you can do better. But I am capable of doing something that no other pony in the entire recorded history Equestria can do."

"Then lets see it." Trixie said with a self confident smile.

Inferno look back to the crowd, giving Twilight a reassuring smile so that she understood that he knew what he was doing. He closed his eyes to concentrate, then he began to pull fire to his horn. The flames began to dance over it. A tendril of fire wound its way into the air, thorns and leaves forming up its length. A great bud of fire formed on the top, getting bigger an bigger all of the time.

Then it slowly opened into fiery flower petals. The flower his fire took the form of was a brilliant fire rose.

Inferno opened his eyes to see his work, it was absolutely beautiful. He sent a happy smile out to the crowd, this construct showed both the precision and power he had over the blazing flames. Trixie, who had been surprised at first, decided to "rain on his parade" a little. She summoned a bucket of water over his head and let it fall. The water immediately extinguished the fire and then proceeded to soak the unfortunate stallion, the bucket landing on his head was just a bonus. As Inferno used his magic to remove the metal container from his head so he could give Trixie an annoyed look, some of the ponies in the crowd were laughing at him.

"What good is an ability that you haven't mastered, I have mastered my magic and therefor am the victor." The show mare gloated, but then she thought she could take it a step further, "I bet your parents would be ashamed of you."

A collective gasp came from the crowd, especially from those who came from Hoofberg. They knew that there were two big things you should **never** insult Inferno with, and his family was the second. Trixie, however, thought this was something she could build on, "I believe that any mare that wants to date you would have to be a complete imbecile."

Everypony that knew him gasped at this point, that was the number **one** thing that you should **never** use to insult him, marefriends. Inferno's annoyance had turned into anger, and now his anger turned into fury, "Are you saying that Hope was stupid to have dated me?"

"No, I'm saying she was obliviously devoid of any sort of intelligence to have done so." Trixie said with her eyes closed and nose up, she could not see the almost pure rage emanating from him, so she continued, "In fact, I'd be willing to bet that she was one of the dumbest mares in all of Equestria."

The entire crowd began to back away from the stage, except for Twilight seeing as she was paralyzed with fear as she looked at the now pure and overflowing rage in Inferno's eyes. That final insult from Trixie was the **last** straw, the fire of fury inside him was about to burst. Flames danced angerly over his horn, until he let his fury lose. In an instance, his mane burst into flames with a sound like that a mach would make if dropped on gasolene. Fire spread over his body in craggy patterns, his tail following suit with his mane when the flames reached it. His baby blue irises turned into fire as his eyes were surrounded by it. Trixie finally turned her gaze to look at him, and what she saw scared her to her very soul. Inferno now looked like a being made entirely of volcanic rock, fire, and rage instead of flesh and blood.

Twilight was paralyzed, this was not the Inferno she had been falling in love with for the past week, this was a monster. Trixie was square in his sight, and he had every intent to kill her. She tried to summon another bucket of water to stop him, but the water and the metal bucket were both vaporized before they could hit him. He walk towards the frightened show pony, leaving black scorch makes in his wake. Then, he leveled his horn at her and began to charge a large fire ball. Everypony but Twilight was yelling at him to stop, but he could not hear them over his anger. Trixie was as good as dead now, in just a few more seconds he would have enough power to...

"Inferno!"

A voice broke though his blinding fury, he wiped his head around to find its source. It was Twilight, she was looking at him with tears rolling down her face. He could hear her barely audible whisper of "please, stop, please." He could see love, concern, and fear in her eyes. His gaze softened as his anger began to dwindle. He took a few deep breath, then he closed his eyes and began to calm down. The fires covering his body began to burn out, then his mane and tail returned to there natural state. When he opened his eyes again, they were back to being his baby blue orbs. He tried to walk off the stage, but stumbled.

"Inferno!" Twilight called out again as she ran to him.

When she got over to him, she slid down to be next to him, "Inferno, are you alright?"

He sent her a weak smile, "Mostly, but I don't think I've had enough practice to do that at will quite yet."

She a little giggled at his joke before helping him to his hooves and then supporting him, "Come on, lets get you to the hospital, we need to make sure you don't suffer any side-affects from using that much power."

With that, the two began to walk together to the hospital, Twilight keeping Inferno from falling over. Their friends silently fell in line behind them.

)-8-(

Inferno was laying in one of beds in Ponyville General Hospital, the nurses had given him a clean bill of heath. The doctors said he just needed rest. Twilight had gone back to the library to try and relax, the rest of their friends were at Sugar Cube Corner.

"I've never seen him get that angry before, but with the insults that Trixie was throwing at him, I guess I can't really say I'm all that surprised he did." Wave Walker said, Inferno's actions this morning had been the center of their conversation for the past ten minutes they had been there.

"Its not his mental reaction that surprised me," Cypher put in as he walked over to the main group from leaning against the nearby wall, "Its his physical one that scared me, he looked more like a demon from Tartarus than a pony like that."

The six mares at the table looked over to him, they didn't realize that they didn't know him until now. Rainbow Dash, of course, was the first one to ask, "Hey, we didn't get your name earlier."

"My name is Cypher, but you specificity probably know me better as 'that poor sap you donated blood to'." Cypher told her with only a small half smirk on his face.

Rainbow's eyes widened at this, "Your that guy with the broken wing?"

The gray stallion frowned before showing her his right side, specifically, the stump that was once a wing, "It got infected, they had to take it off or risk me dieing."

Fluttershy was the next one to ask a question, "Y-you mean you can't fly anymore?"

"I'd rather live though that and be grounded for life than have both wings and be dead." Cypher said with a small hopeful smile.

Rarity nodded at him before she changed the subject, "Its good to know that darling, but I'm still to shaken by this morning's events to stay off the subject for to long."

"Ah'm just surprised that only Twi could get though ta him, not even Wave could do it, and he has been Inferno's friend fer years." Apple Jack announced.

"I'm not actually surprised by that," The blue stallion said, "I believe he has something for her, even if he tries to tell himself he likes all of you the same amount."

"I could see those two going out, if Inferno could ever get over losing Hope, that is." Rarity told them with a frown forming on her near the end.

Cypher chuckled a little, "If I knew Hope, and I did, she probably told him to keep living, which would include getting a new marefriend."

"You mean he is going to put himself back on the market soon?" Dash asked in shock.

"She did make him promise to live on, so he will try to get a new marefriend soon, he never did tell me when though." Wave confirmed.

Rarity put a hoof on her chin in thought, "We really should try to get those two together, it seams to me that they were made for each other. After going though so much, he really does deserve to be with the mare of his dreams."

Cypher nodded in agreement, "I agree, but we are going to have to be subtle about it, we don't want him to do it just because of peer pressure."

"And here I was hoping I'd get a shot at him, oh well, easy come easy go I guess." Dash said in a somewhat disappointed manner, only to see everypony in the room giving her an odd look, "What?"

)-8-(

Inferno lay in the hospital bed in complete silence, tossing and turning to try and get some rest for his weary mind. But sleep would not come to him, for the first time in his life he could not get his mind to shut down and rest. He could not stop thinking about Twilight, she reminded him a lot of Good Hope, but in her own unique way. Like Twilight, Hope had been a rather smart pony, though not to the point of living in a library.

But there was also the fact that she had been able to cut though his anger and make him calm down, something only Hope could do in the past. Did she like him? Did she even have time to be with him, being Celestia's personal student and all?

Questions like those plagued his mind. He knew Hope would not have a problem with him getting into a relationship with Twilight, but would Twilight have a problem with it? He looked out the window to see the moon rising into the sky.

"Luna, if you can hear me, can you give me some advice? Please?" He asked toward the night sky.

"Luna may not be here, but perhaps I can aid you." A deep voice echoed though the room. The voice was soon followed by a blood red alicorn as the the door to the room turned to dust. The alicorn walked over to Inferno's bed and sat next to the troubled unicorn.

Inferno tried to back away from the strange alicorn, "Who are you?"

"I am Destruction," The alicorn identified himself, "You already know my mentally disturbed brother Death."

"'Mentally disturbed' the guy is a homicidal maniac!" Inferno exclaimed.

Destruction nodded, "That is true, but he is only mentally disturbed compared to how bad he was a right before he was banished a thousand years ago."

"Oh, I see..." The pyrokinetic trailed off.

"Now then, do you mind telling me what you need advice about?" Destruction asked the younger red stallion.

"Well," The younger began, "There is this mare that I like, but I don't know if she likes me back, or if she even has time for me with all her other responsibilities."

The elder chuckled a little, "There is only one way to tell if she likes you, and that is to ask her yourself. As for the later problem, if she truly loves you, she will make time to be with you. It is said that love is not convenient to a busy schedule, this is very true. Just ask her, I'm sure you know the old saying, 'It is better to love and lose than to never love at all.'"

Inferno thought about it for a little bit, then he smiled at the alicorn, "You know, your absolutely right. I'll need to wait for the right time to ask her though, timing can make all the difference in the world you know."

Destruction smiled back at him, "I do know that. Now, if you will excuse me, Luna and I have a date scheduled for tonight."

The red alicorn walked out of the door, which reformed its self as he passed. Inferno pondered his words for a little bit longer he fell asleep. Now, when Inferno sleeps, he sleeps like a rock. So he was completely oblivious to the Ursa Minor that rampaged though the town that night.

)-8-(

"Wow! You really stopped a rampaging Ursa Minor!?" The pyrokinetic asked in amazement.

Twilight blushed at the question, "Well, he was just grumpy from being woken up from his nap, I probably wouldn't have been able to do it if he had actually been angry."

Inferno was sitting across the library's dining room table from Twilight. The more he got to know her, the more amazing she got. The fact that she stopped an Ursa Minor by herself and yet is humble about it is an astounding thing. There was no doubt in his mind now, he was falling head over hooves for Twilight. He knew that now would be a bad time to ask her, she was still a bit wound up from yesterday. He would give her time to unwind before asking her.

"So... How was your stay at the hospital?" Twilight inquired to try and start a conversation.

"Well," Inferno began, "I had an unusual visitor come to my room after hours, it turns out that Death has a brother, and that brother is actually mentally staple and a rather nice guy."

Twilight's eyes widened at this news, "H-He does?"

"Ya, he does, his name is Destruction. He didn't use the door though, he just turned it to dust." The red stallion told her.

Twilight mulled over this information, this was good news, at least they don't have two homicidal alicorns running a muck. She couldn't help but want to meet this Destruction pony, see if he really is a nice guy like Inferno says he is. But her mind soon wandered, Celestia had sent her a letter telling her that Death had officially taken credit for the attack on Hoofberg, but his demands had been declined. That was the day after Gilda came to town, and he hadn't made a move since then, was he up to something?

)-8-(

Death sat behind a large wooden desk, various reports on his army's status spread over it. He had more troops than were in the Royal Guard, but his troops were self-trained. He would train them better, but he didn't have the knowledge to do it. He had heard of Celestia's personal student, perhaps she has the reading material that is required for this task... but he needs some sort of distraction.

It was then that the door to his study opened, standing in the doorway were two tall stallions. One was wearing his follower's masks, the other that of his brother's. Then, the one with the skull mask spoke, "You called for us, sir?"

An evil grin began to spread over Death's face, "Why, yes, yes I did..."


End file.
